


The First Personal Assistant

by LeafontheWinf2



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: 30's and 40's, M/M, Steve was Howard's Pepper, but not like that, personal assistant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-03
Updated: 2013-03-03
Packaged: 2017-12-04 03:17:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/705912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeafontheWinf2/pseuds/LeafontheWinf2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper dealt with Tony making arc reactors in the basement. Steve, on the other hand, had to deal with Howard building nuclear devices in his office. This is the start of the team up of Pepper and Steve, the two personal assistants to the Starks and how they manage not to kill the two morons in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Personal Assistant

**Author's Note:**

> My roommate and I were discussing what it would be like if Steve worked for Howard before joining the army. And when he woke up in the future and Pepper was complaining about Tony and Steve was all, "oh please you have no idea how bad it can get" while helping her deal with Tony. I also love the idea of Tony spoiling the hell out of Steve when they're together and treating Steve like he's the best thing ever when he actually remebers he's in a relationship.

Pepper Potts had a difficult life. It wasn’t that she was the CEO of the most powerful company in the world, or that she was friends with a superhero. No, what made her life hard was one Tony Stark. Not because he was a hero, but that certainly didn’t help much. It was the fact that he had to play with explosives in his lab.

Which was in Stark Tower.

Where people lived now.

Which was why Pepper was ready to scream as she stormed into the main living room and sank into the warm couch. She let out a tired groan before letting her eyes fall shut. All she wanted to do was punch Tony as hard as she could so he would stop acting like a moron. 

Pepper nearly screamed when a weight dropped next to her on the couch. Couldn’t she just get one minute to herself?

“Tony,” she growled out, “I swear to god I will kill you if you don’t...”

“Sorry Ms. Potts, I’m not Tony.”

Well shit. That sounded like Steve. Pepper opened her eyes and of course, there was Steve Rogers sitting there with a gentle smile on his face and a mug of something, probably coffee, in his hands. And now she felt horrible for being rude to Steve because out of everyone he understood her annoyance with Tony the best because he was dating the moron. 

“Steve I’m so sorry I snapped at you,” Pepper said quickly, attempting to sit up. But a large warm hand on her shoulder pushed her back into the couch while he smiled understandingly at her. But that was the problem. Steve Rogers didn’t understand though he came close. No one understood what dealing with Tony Stark was like.

“It’s perfectly alright,” Steve assured her, and why was he always so nice, “You’ve earned it today. I saw what Tony did on the news.”

Pepper let out a low groan, “I can’t believe he called Justin Hammer the most pathetic excuse for a human being to ever grace the planet.”

Steve hummed comfortingly, pressing the mug into her hands. “I made you some tea, it’ll help calm you down,” Steve assured her gently. 

“No, I don’t think I will calm down!” Pepper snapped, no longer caring that she was nearly yelling at the sweetest person in the whole tower, “Because of that comment, our stocks have dropped and the shareholders are out for blood! And when I told him that all he did was roll his eyes and tell me he’s a genius before going to play with the Iron Man suit! I can’t stand him some days!”

“Just be happy he hasn’t tried to get England’s crown princess drunk and in his bed yet.” 

That was not the answer she was expecting. Pepper turned to Steve with wide eyes and said slowly, “Steve, England doesn’t have a crown princess. There’s a prince.”

“Oh I know,” Steve reassured her with a gentle pat on the shoulder, “I was talking about when Howard tried that and I had to clean that mess up. It wasn’t particularly pleasant because shortly after he announced to the German ambassador that he couldn’t wait for one of his weapons to finish of old Adolf. Nearly pulled us into the war that night.” 

Pepper’s mouth dropped open. Now that she didn’t know. Steve’s smiled morphed into a smirk at her look before he leaned back into the couch.

“I’m guessing you didn’t know then that I used to work for Stark Industries before I was Captain America?” Steve sounded far too pleased in Pepper’s opinion right then. 

“I did not know that,” Pepper admitted, “How did it happen?”

It was a story about a kid from Brooklyn who couldn’t get a job because he was Irish in the Great Depression where only really Americans could get jobs. How that kid, with a black eyes and fat lip walked into Stark Industries to work shoveling coal only to snap at the owner. How the owner was so impressed he hired him as a secretary right then and there on the factory floor. How that kid had been forced to deal with the Stark craziness except this time it was leading up to a war. How the kid learned the politics game fast and learned how to control a Stark during this time. 

Steve leaned back in his seat, a sad smile tugging on his face, “Howard was very protective of his workers, even more than Tony is. He’s a lot like Tony in that way, and don’t make that face Pepper actually listen to me. He hated how people like me were treated.” 

Pepper raised an eyebrow at that, “People like you? What does that even mean?”

“I was a poor Irish kid. When there was a crime in the weapons factory the workers would blame me and the foreman would take it out on my hide,” Steve told her bluntly, “I could get pulled off the street and arrested all because of my last name. Then the war started and the same thing could still happen but if I got arrested they’d ship me out to the Pacific.”

Steve sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He looked old right then, as if he’d seen too much too soon which was true when Pepper thought about it. “Howard always wanted to make the world a better place,” Steve told her softly, “Even if it was just hiring one of the Irish boys to be a secretary and keep his notes in order. And then to have the possibility of killing that kid for the war effort, well that was just too much.”

Steve offered her a sweet smile, “I’m pretty sure he was mostly making up for nearly killing me that one time in his office.” 

Pepper smiled at that, “That I can understand. I hate it when Tony does stupid stuff with his technology here.”

Steve chuckled at that, “Yeah, I nearly killed Howard when he made a faulty nuclear weapon in the factory.” 

Wait.

Did he seriously just say that while sitting there smiling happily at her like it was any day and not like he just admitted to Howard Stark building a nuclear device near him. 

“He built a nuclear weapon in a factory?” Pepper demanded. 

Steve just rolled his eyes at her horrified expression. “It wouldn’t have been such a big deal except the factory was in the middle of Manhattan,” Steve told her, “I threatened to smother him in his sleep every other day. It was really annoying especially cause the bomb was faulty. That was before he shipped out to the front.” 

Pepper couldn’t help but smile at the soldier sitting in front of him, “I must admit, you might have had a harder time than I do. Doesn’t sound like Howard Stark listened to you much.”

“Of course he didn’t,” Steve snorted dismissively, “I wasn’t a beautiful woman telling him to do things. You of course are so Tony will be more likely to listen to you than Howard ever was to listen to me.” 

Pepper raised an eyebrow at that, not even having to voice that Tony listened Steve all the time now that the two were sleeping together. 

Steve got to his feet and placed a warm hand on Pepper’s shoulder. He smiled gently down at her, “My advice in this type of situation is to create a product that has both Industries names on it, market it, then make Tony and Hammer both attend a conference after its released and tell Tony that you’ll assign him one press interview with Vanity Fair for every derogatory comment he makes. But you know him better, so take it worth a grain of salt.” 

And then he left her. Sitting there with her mouth open in shock of his deviousness and master plan. It would keep Tony in line, that was the best part. 

Pepper did follow through on Steve’s advice, and while Tony whined about how mean and terrible she was to Steve it did keep him under control. In fact Pepper forgot all about her conversation with Steve the other day as she was sucked back into the very demanding life of a CEO and keeping a certain person in one piece. It wasn’t her fault, it was honestly hard to think of Captain America doing her old job for Howard Stark. 

But of course it came back up again, and this time Pepper had to admit she was quite thankful for it. 

It of course happened after a particularly bad mission that leveled a good half of Manhattan and left Pepper with stacks and stacks of paperwork she had to deal with. She couldn’t be faulted for staring at them instead of filing the papers that she should have been working on. 

Pepper was about three seconds from killing someone when Steve walked into the room and took one look at her before sighing. 

“Go take a break,” Steve ordered, crossing his arms over his chest, “I’ll deal with these papers.”

Pepper frowned at him worriedly, “Steve I don’t think you’re ready to handle this yet...”

He arched an eyebrow at her, “Pepper. I did your job before cell phones and copy machines when computers were the size of rooms. I can forge your signature on these papers and make copies of them. Go to sleep.” 

And then he physically picked her up and carried her out of the room before shutting the door in her face. Pepper stared at it in shock for a good minute before shrugging and heading off to bed. Should she have been more worried about Steve doing her paperwork? Yes she should have.

Was she?

No. Not really. 

Which was why Pepper fell into a nice restful sleep until a certain genius billionaire philanthropist stormed into her room demanding the return of his supersoldier. Now Pepper knew how protective Tony was of Steve and she knew Tony hated letting Steve out of his sight for extended periods of time. 

And by extended she meant a good thirty minutes when he wasn’t in the lab. 

“Pepper, I want him back now,” Tony whined as they stood in the elevator that was taking them back to the floor Pepper’s office was located on, “He’s supposed to be in my bed, right now, waiting for me. That is his job. Not whatever you’re making him do.”

“I’m not making him do anything, he volunteered,” Pepper said while stepping out of the elevator and heading towards her office. And if she took some pleasure in keeping Tony from Steve after all the crap he put her through, well he couldn’t prove that now could he. 

“Bullshit,” Tony snapped while Pepper threw her office door open, “Steve would never work with paperwork, so there’s that.” 

Steve looked up and smiled happily at the both of them as he placed a folder on Pepper’s desk. 

“There you guys are, I just finished up,” Steve said cheerfully as he let Tony press a kiss to his forehead, “Pepper, I gave Mr. Moran the file folder of the potential stock raise, made sure to edit out the potential aspects that could cause a drop in said stocks. I also got R&D to sign off on the forms they’ve been avoiding along and made sure finance approved of everything. There’s a copy on your desk, three copies in files, and I emailed you another copy.” 

That was surprising. Pepper just stared bemusedly back as Steve while Tony whined and tugged Steve closer while trying to get the blonds attention back on him. Steve just glanced down lovingly at Tony quickly before turning back to Pepper to smile at her. 

“I hope I took care of everything you needed,” Steve said softly, flushing and staring at the ground. 

“Aren’t you just adorable,” Tony cooed, pressing another kiss to Steve’s forehead and then followed it with a gentle kiss on the lips. Steve leaned down just enough to hide his face in Tony’s neck in embarrassment. Pepper just smiled happily at how adorable the two of them were together. Steve was just about the only thing Tony actively took care of in his life. 

“Thank you for your help Steve,” Pepper said gently as Tony began to lead Steve from the room while fussing over the taller blond.

“It’s no problem Pepper,” Steve called back, “I was just glad I didn’t have to use a typewriter.”

“I might have to hire you on if this is the quality of work you do consistently,” Pepper teased gently before Tony closed the door.

Steve sent her a quick smirk before admitting, “You know, I was never fired and I never retired so technically I’m still on the payroll.”

Well. That was different. Pepper sunk into her seat a wicked smile on her face when Tony demanded “You’re on payroll for what?” This was going to be rather fun. Tony would have no idea what he was up against if Steve came to work for her.

Guess she had a new personal assistant to hire in the near future.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone's interested, I would write a chapter showing Steve and Howard interacting in the 40's.


End file.
